Dal Segno’s work has
sometimes impressed me and sometimes
not. In a head to head comparison I
happened to prefer their reproduction
of a Strauss roll over the work of rival
company, Tacet. And yet Dal Segno’s
are reproductions recorded in 1992 with
ambient and action noise, both occasionally
distracting. I must add that this disc
definitely does them no favours. Thirty-nine
minutes for a disc of this kind is hardly
acceptable and there are, obviously,
plenty more Mozart rolls in this wide
world to be transferred. In their defence
I should add that I’ve found all the
previous discs I’ve reviewed well up
to standard in respect of timings so
this must be – I hope it will remain
– an aberration.
I can’t really summon
up much enthusiasm for the roll performances
either. De Pachmann left behind no Mozart
discs so it might be at least partially
instructive to listen to his Rondo
alla turca, the ubiquitous encore
standby from K331. But de Pachmann lacks
vim and the roll seems to have dampened
his ardour. Alexander Raab’s Fantasia
is in part a casualty of the reproducing
system in its lack of sensitivity of
touch but does at least give a glimpse
into the technique and musical style
of a fine pianist. Whilst I’m grumbling
about Dal Segno I should add that they
give no biographies of any of the pianists
but do provide a rather risible biography
of Mozart. Where this leaves poor Raab,
of whom only specialists will have heard,
is anyone’s guess. He had a decent Central
European reputation and made a distinguished
career as a teacher in America. He did
make rolls, though I’m not sure about
discs.
Landowska’s K576 hits
the buffers in this roll. She recorded
Mozart splendidly if inimitably on 78s
but here the mechanical phrasing and
uninflection renders this performance
null and void. There’s no dialogue between
hands and the system has flattened dynamics;
all sense of lyric linearity – if there
ever was any – has evaporated, not least
in the vapidity of the slow movement.
Little of this, doubtless, was Landowska’s
doing.
Backhaus pops up for
two rather inconsequential minutes and
then we have another of those Horowitzian
pile-drivers, of which a number exist
on roll. Very exciting doubtless but
one must turn to disc for the real thing.
Too many things are
wrong with this disc; poor timing, essentially
non-existent notes, inadequate programming,
deficiencies of the roll system, and
noise distractions that should have
been dealt with.
Jonathan Woolf
Vladimir de Pachmann (piano), recorded in 1906
